


Measurements

by AlyssAlenko



Series: T. Shepard Designs [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Fashion & Models, F/M, Falling In Love, Fashion & Couture, Fashion Design, Fashion designer sheoard, Implied Relationships, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, Love, Model thane, Orphans, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Shrios, Shrios AU, Slow Burn, fashion - Freeform, high fashion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-07-17 23:04:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7289638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyssAlenko/pseuds/AlyssAlenko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Shrios AU in the world of fashion, where our beloved Commander (Taye) Shepard is an up-and-coming fashion designer, with a weathered eye on the horizon for the day when she puts her little boutique on the map. Until that day, she's letting the Illusive Man back her up. That's when she meets her newest model: Thane Krios. This dark and graceful stranger has his secrets, but that doesn't stop them two of them from turning each others' worlds upside down...</p><p>Rated M for future chapters</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meet Cute

“Taye, Jack popped a seam and is currently entertaining the idea of going out on the runway like that.” Tali, her assistant informed her, tapping the top of her clipboard with her pen.

Taye Shepard rolled her eyes and continued pinning the pleat of the skirt on the model in front of her. Jack was the newest model for Cerberus Fashion Incorporated, but where The Illusive Man kept finding these new team members had her baffled, to say the least. Taye didn't even mind that Jack was covered from head to toe in tattoos, it was unique and she had an amazing stage presence...but she kind of tried to push everyone's buttons, especially Miranda's. Keeping the two of them civil to one another was the real challenge.

“I swear that girl would go out onstage wearing nothing but a harness over her breasts if I let her. I’ll handle it...in the meantime, Miranda I need you out of that skirt...the seam isn't laying right, and I'm not letting you go onto the runway in anything less than perfect.” She sighed, running her fingers through her waist length orange hair, upsetting her perfect and natural ringlet curls. “Tell Joker I found his hat, and I need to fix that button on Garrus’ vest. How are we looking out there?”

Tali adjusted the ear cover of her headset, being Taye’s assistant and stage manager would've been hectic for some, but Tali loved running the technical aspects of the show...content to let Taye dazzle audience after audience with her stunning creations. Not many people would've given, that poor fourteen year old girl teenage girl who was a long way from home and all alone a shot, but Taye had seen her potential, and brought her on board. That was three years ago; before The Illusive Man had plucked them both out of obscurity and dropped them in the middle of the fray.

“It's a full house again.” Tali grinned.

“How does he make every show of mine packed?” She muttered incredulously, threading her needle carefully.

Her fingers flew over the seam of Miranda’s skirt, adjusting and sewing quickly and accurately; they had thirty minutes until curtain, and she wasn't going to be caught unawares...one never knew when someone would buy one of her pieces and walk out after the show with it. Being backed by an actual company had its advantages even with no formal training. She'd come so far from that poor orphan girl designing clothes out of pieces of fabric she salvaged...growing up in the slums alone, was hard, but at least she'd had the Reds: a group of kids in the same situation as her. Sometimes the outfits she made saved them from freezing in the winter.

That was probably why she'd taken Tali in, and the girl was a technical genius too, nevermind that her immune system left much to be desired; if anyone had the sniffles, Tali got a full blown cold in less than a day. 

“Money makes the world go round.” Tali shrugged.

“Isn't that the truth?” Taye laughed, knotting the thread and cutting the excess so it didn't show. “Miranda!”

Back when she'd started with Cerberus, the Illusive Man had given her a trial run, with nothing but two models Jacob and Miranda, a sewing machine, and three bolts of the nicest fabric she'd ever laid eyes on in her life. When she'd sold everything after her first show in one hour, The Illusive Man had brought her on board immediately. Even if he was all about the money she could make for him, he still let her do whatever she wanted, style wise. She spent most of her free time in a shop that she built from the ground up where he'd found her less than a year ago, selling some of the most exquisite and unique clothes she'd made alone and by hand.

She stepped back, admiring her handiwork on the skirt, before smiling.

“Perfect, go get into place, Miranda, you're ready to go on...can you take this fedora to Joker and where the Hell is Gar--” She trailed off suddenly, her piercing pale green eyes on a man trailing gracefully behind The Illusive Man as he approached her.

“Shepard, this is your newest model.” The Illusive Man said.

She reached out timidly to shake his hand...why was she so nervous all of a sudden?

“Taye Shepard…” She whispered almost inaudibly making him smile at her.

“Thane Krios. I'm familiar with your work, and I look forward to working with you in the future.” His black eyes were sparkling as he kissed the back of her hand.

At least they understood she couldn't use him for this show, seeing as all of the clothes she made were customized for the person wearing them. She rubbed the back of her neck, embarrassedly with her left hand; Thane still hadn't released her right hand. Tali nudged her in the ribs with her elbow, knocking her back into reality and making her pull her hand out of his.

“Oh, right. This is my assistant, Tali Zorah.”

“Nice to meet you.” Tali smiled.

As the Illusive Man led Thane away to meet everyone else, Taye found herself staring after them. Tali stood silently at her side, waiting. Apparently her boss had a serious crush and it had only taken a second...Taye didn't get crushes, or so she'd thought--the woman had been absorbed in nothing but work since she'd met her, except for one brief relationship years ago.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I want to get his measurements more than I've wanted anything in my life.” Taye bit her lip before glancing at her watch and letting out a strangled cry of frustration. “I need to focus...I've got five minutes to fix a seam and a button, I'm going to need to change the line-up. Jack will have to go on last, take me to Garrus.”


	2. Grunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tali had arranged a dinner for the success of Taye's latest show, but somehow thane didn't get an invitation. The mysterious newcomer is quite the gentleman escorting her to the restaurant, and hovering constantly near her in case there's something he can do to help her, but on the way home from the dinner, Taye gets an unexpected surprise...

Taye sighed, exhausted as she let her hair out of its ponytail; orange ringlet curls cascaded down past her shoulders to lay against her shoulder blades. She didn’t normally like to change unless she was home, but Tali had made reservations on the off chance they sold out again…which they had…and she didn’t want to show up in overalls and a green plaid shirt. She wore it for the pockets, so that she had buttons, needles, thread, and seam rippers on hand, and there were times when she didn’t appear onstage with her designs. She preferred to be behind the scenes, but the Illusive man did like to show people the face behind T.S. Designs.

She pulled the straps off her shoulders, letting the overalls hang on her hips as she unbuttoned the green plaid button-up shirt as she heard a door open somewhere; no one else should’ve been here—everyone should’ve been headed to dinner already. Turning, she stopped cold, seeing Thane looking just as shocked to see her as she was to see him. Neither of them moved for several seconds, both staring at the other as their minds tried to catch up.

He coughed and looked away.

She realized why in an instant—her overalls had fallen to the floor, and her shirt hung open, showing off the nude bra and blue polka dot panties she’d worn that day. Mortification at not matching had started to set in…as well as the fact the she was nearly naked in front of the same man she’d developed an instant crush on. Taye had been seen in her underwear as well as revealing lingerie by hundreds of thousands of spectators—her own line, of course—and by her past lovers, but this was different. She bit her lower lip.

“Hi…” Her voice was shaky, nervous.

“Hello.”

“Why aren’t you out to dinner with everyone else?” She cocked her head to the side.

“Seeing as I’m the newcomer and had nothing to do with this show, I didn’t think it was my place.” He replied, shrugging.

She shook her head emphatically.

“That’s silly. You’re a part of the team now, and this celebratory dinner is as much for you joining as it is for me selling out my show.”

“If you’re sure…”

“Oh I am.” Taye slipped behind a nearby screen. “The more, the merrier.”

She emerged from behind the screen in a beige corseted dress, with an asymmetrical hem on the skirt, making it knee-length in the front and ankle-length in the back, embroidered with black roses, sparingly and he couldn’t stop his jaw from hitting the floor; she held the bodice to her chest and turned around pointing to the black satin ribbons across her back. She glanced over her shoulder at him, and he felt his heart thud in his chest—he’d thought she was beautiful before, but with that look she went up to a knockout.

“Can you lace me up?”

He nodded, slowly. “What would you have done if I wasn’t here?”

His fingers grazed her skin, making her shudder a little before he grabbed the ends of the ribbons and tightened the corset until she told him to stop and then he tied the ends in a bow. She let her hair down from where she had been holding it atop her head and out of the way, before donning a simple black choker and black pumps. The grin on her face when she turned around was infectious.

“Not wear this dress.” She rolled her eyes like the answer was obvious.

“It’s quite fetching. One of yours, I assume?”

“Of course. I’m a brand name now…did that sounds as shallow as I think it did? I didn’t mean it like that…It’s just I grew up with nothing and all I ever had was what I made. Even now, no matter what, if I lose everything, I still have what I made for myself.”

“That’s commendable.”

He offered her his arm, and she took it, allowing herself to be escorted out of the studio, as she pulled her coat on over her dress, it was starting to snow as she locked the door behind them—part of her regretted her choice of wardrobe, but the way Thane kept eyeing her surreptitiously out of the corner of his eye, made it all worth it. The two of them talked and laughed on their way to the restaurant, little anecdotes from their past, their interests, her thriving enterprise; he made her laugh more on their walk than she had in the past two years, and that made her like him even more…not that she would admit that out loud. Thane was quite the gentleman. When they got to the restaurant, he held the door open for her, ushered her inside, helped her out of her coat, as well as held her chair out for her to sit down.

Tali and her lighting technician, Kasumi watched the whole exchange, giggling; they were her best friends, and something told her she was never going to live this down.

Her gloved hands were in her pockets as she trudged home through the falling snow, having declined Thane’s offer to walk her home, much to Kasumi and Tali’s dismay—they’d wanted to tease her more, as she caught a glimpse of the figure huddling under her stoop trying to stay warm—it was too cold for anyone to be out, let alone a thirteen year-old-boy; something told her he didn’t have anyone. She approached him slowly. He was shivering profusely, his arms wrapped around his torso trying to keep in his own heat so he didn’t freeze to death. Taye knelt down and looked him in the eyes—they were the brightest blue she’d ever seen, under a head of dark silver hair.

“Do you have somewhere to stay for the night?” She asked.

He hesitated for a moment, before shaking his head; she’d thought so. She held out her hand to him to help him up out of the snow, wishing someone had done that for her back when she ran with the Reds in the slums of Chicago. The boy glanced at her hand before taking it, he let her pull him to his feet; she unzipped her coat and draped it over his shoulders and leading him up the stairs and into her building. After unlocking the door and ushering him inside, she led him into the kitchen prepared to make him something hot and make sure he didn’t get hypothermia or come down with pneumonia.

“You got a name, kid?” Taye began pulling ingredients out of the refrigerator.

“Grunt.” He muttered.

She stopped for a second and scrunched up her nose, but it wasn’t any of her business the name he’d obviously chosen for himself. He’d probably been bounced from foster home to foster home before finally taking to the streets, like she had, but unlike her he hadn’t found a group of kids in the same position, like the Reds. She sighed—it sucked but sometimes such was life, luckily she’d had the talent as a designer to get off the streets.

“I’ll tell you what, Grunt, why don’t you go take a long, hot bath and by the time you get out the food should be ready. It’s down the hall, second door on your right.”

Grunt nodded slowly and slipped off the barstool he was sitting on, still clutching her coat around his shoulders; he was glad someone nice like her had been the one who’d found him. He could only imagine what would’ve happened if someone else had lived in this building. When the water was on to boil and the chicken was in the oven baking, Taye made her way to her work room, and started to sew something warm for Grunt to wear when he was out of the bath—he didn’t need to put those other clothes back on, they were practically falling apart and he’d catch his death in them.


End file.
